A big surprise will be coming home in your child’s folder very soon. Our elementary students have worked very hard over the past three weeks on a special assignment. Each child on the elementary hall (including our 5th graders) created a beautiful bordered self-portrait for an exciting new fund-raiser at our school. Just for participating, your child will earn a free sheet of 20 stickers with his or her artwork on them. You will also receive a personalized catalog with numerous items that you can order with your child’s artwork. These items make wonderful christmas presents for relatives. CLICK HERE for more information about Square 1 Art.

Students will discuss the ways that God makes many things in nature symmetrical. Students will practice multiplication of four by creating a design that had Quad symmetry. Students discover the term “Quad” means four. Using carbon paper as a drawing tool, students will fold their paper twice with carbon paper and create a design that is multiplied four times. We will explore in class a number of works by master artists that also use symmetry in their artwork.

God is so good! Not only is He creative, but He made us ALL in his image. Wow!!! It is amazing to see how creative that God is by making millions of people that live on the Earth all different. Since God is creative, we can also be creative with our artwork.

The first week of school, all students will be asked to create a self portrait drawing using pencils and crayons. Students will be able to look in the table-top mirrors to at their reflection as they are working. I have been so impressed at the amount of growth I have seen in the students that I have taught for the past three years.

These portraits have all been scanned and emailed to all elementary parents. I plan on comparing these drawings to those done at the end of the year to measure improvement. I am looking forward to another creative year in art class!

Students in the 2nd througth 4th grades will be working on creating a symmetrical butterfly design. We will look at the way that God created most living things using symmetry. Even our own bodies have an invisible line of symmetry that makes our bodies the same on both sides. We will draw and paint unique and creative butterfly desings inspired by those in nature.

In our continued study of the color theory, students will create a fun egg shaped color wheel this week. Using liquid tempera paints, students will mix the secondary colors (orange, green and purple) using the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow). After filling in the color wheel with the traditional colors, students will be allowed to use other colors to decorate the egg to create patterns and decorative designs.

Did you ever wonder why the sunrise and sunset is so beautiful? God created the sunrise and the sunset in a way that shows how beautifully warm and cool colors can work together. Students in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades will be taking two weeks to learn about warm and cool colors and how they work well together. The warm colors are red, yellow and orange. The cool colors are blue, green and purple. We will create two paintings in this project, one using cool colors and one using warm colors. During week two of this project we will combine the two paintings to make a collage.

Students will be learning about “Op Art” (artwork with grids and optical illusions) through the exploration of master artists Victor Vasserely and Bridget Riley. Students will practice and sharpen thier skills for coloring, drawing, measuring and using rulers precisely – just as these master artists did when creating thier masterpieces. Students will trace geometric shapes and divide thier paper using a ruler. With markers, students will create a checkerboard grid row-by-row to create an “Op Art” effect. Students will also explore and imitate the works of Bridget Riley through the creation of a wavy complimentary color painting.